Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Photo by Jeff Harris.

Spadina Gardens is a legendary apartment building in the Annex, of downtown Toronto. Stratford actors, opera singers and robber barons have lived there, publishing houses were spawned there, and writers like Salman Rushdie and Patricia Highsmith passed through its doors. But when a dutch real estate conglomerate bought it, and words like renoviction started floating down its hallowed halls, the tenants decided to fight back. But can even an apartment as legendary as this one stop the rampant explosion of Toronto’s housing crisis?

Charlotte’s Castle is a new documentary that looks at one Toronto apartment building — its history, aesthetics, architecture —  and the plight of its tenants: the people who live there. It’s the work of award-winning Toronto documentarian Jamie Kastner. I previously talked with Jamie about The Secret Disco Revolution in 2012, A Skyjacker’s Tale in 2016, and There are no Fakes in 2019.

Charlotte’s Castle is having its world premiere tomorrow, September 24th, at Toronto’s Hot Docs Cinema, and on TVO beginning on Tuesday, September 26th.

I spoke with Jamie in Toronto, via ZOOM.